Exploring the creation of a new initial teacher education (ITE) programme underpinned by inclusion

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper seeks to investigate constraints and opportunities underlying the development of a new initial teacher education (ITE) programme with the goal of reconceptualising what inclusive education might mean in the Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) education system. The opportunity to develop this new ITE programme emerged from a request of the Ministry of Education [MoE. 2013. Request for Application for Provision of Exemplary Post Graduate Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Programmes. Welington: Author] to ITE providers to develop a Masters’ level programme directed at intervening in the persistent disparity in educational outcomes for students identified as ‘priority learners’. How teaching practitioners are ‘working the space’ in the creation and implementation of a new ITE programme committed to improving the learning outcomes of all students in Aotearoa NZ is of interest to this paper. We draw on critical discourse analysis (CDA) to investigate the ways inclusion is constructed and practised in past and current educational approaches in Aotearoa NZ. We argue that a broader analysis of the shifting nature and complex social, cultural, historical, political and institutional contexts in which students are situated is required in reforms and initiatives that aim to raise the learning outcomes of all students in the education system.